(Central News Agency, Singapore, comprehensive foreign news report on the 9th) Taiwan will target so-called “communist spies” before next year’s presidential election. Some scholars point out that Taiwan is “not very strict” in punishing spies; however, other scholars believe that Beijing’s methods are ineffective and that Taiwanese voters have long been aware of such tactics.
BBC News reported that Taiwan and China have monitored each other since 1949. However, in the past 10 months, Taiwan has not only prosecuted a series of people for espionage, but also convicted many people. It pointed out that this was the result of the Beijing authorities stepping up espionage activities and related strategies that have expanded beyond the circle of military elites. irrefutable evidence.
Since the beginning of this year, 16 people have been charged with espionage for China; in comparison, the number of espionage cases registered by Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice between 2013 and 2019 was 44.
Several reports suggest that Beijing continues to expand its intelligence spying activities around the world, particularly targeting the United States. Washington has also stepped up its intelligence collection on China.
Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel who has served in the Indo-Pacific region for decades, believes that Taiwan is an easy target for Chinese intelligence personnel.
He said that except for the fact that Taiwan is close to China and most people speak Chinese, Taiwan is “not very strict” in punishing spies. “This will affect the willingness to spy on China because one will think that the ‘risk of loss’ is not that serious.”
Newsa also pointed out that Taiwan did not have a sound system to restrict access to confidential information in the past, and this has only recently changed.
He said: “If sensitive and classified information is not properly controlled… you can imagine that this will give any capable foreign intelligence agency an opportunity to take advantage of it. This is exactly what has been happening in Taiwan for a long, long time.”
Taiwan seems to focus on catching spies in the military. Most of the alleged communist spies were military-related, or were accused of targeting military personnel for recruitment.
Many experts believe that if the investigation is focused on Taiwan’s business community, many cases will also be uncovered.
What is worrying is that China’s “spies” not only steal secrets, but also help to influence the trend and win public support for China.
Kerry Gershaneck, a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University, said that half of China’s strategy against Taiwan involves “media warfare” in an attempt to psychologically disrupt Taiwan and demoralize the Taiwanese people. He cited the eve of the last presidential election in 2020 as an example, when it was revealed that Beijing had paid Taiwanese media in exchange for positive reports on China.
Lev Nachman, a political science scholar at National Chengchi University, said that the DPP’s information warfare plan this time is to make the espionage accusations public, which is “good public relations” for the DPP.
Nan Le also believes that China’s infiltration operations are of little use. For example, he said that there were also concerns about Chinese interference during the election four years ago, and it was evident that President Tsai Ing-wen still achieved a major victory.
Nan Le said: “(Presentation) cases are not new. They are already part of the daily life of Taiwanese people. I believe voters are more aware of these tricks than we think.” (Translator: Cai Jiamin/Verification: Zhang Zhengqian) 1121109
